Folding door hold means



Jan. 7, 1964 J. RUDNICK 7 3,116,782

FOLDING DOOR HOLD MEANS Filed Sept. 8, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 2 T q- 2 14 /0 W20 INVENTOR Jack Pun/v/cK mar ATTORNEY Jan. 7, 1964 J. RUDNICK 3,116,782 FOLDIING DOOR HOLD MEANS I Filed Sept. 8, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 MM k 1w. \ku R nu NM A N my g w m w M Y 9%.. g mm MP W ..rv.o,,,, A Mm ATTORNEY Jan. 7, 1964 I J. RUDNICK 3,116,782

FOLDING DOOR HOLD MEANS Filed Sept. 8, 1958 s Sheets-Sheet s llllllllllllllllllIIIIIIIHHIIIll INVENTOR 8746A Par/we? J 221% MW ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,116,782 FOLDING DOOR HOLD MEANS lack Rudnicit, 225 E. Mosliolu Parkway N., Bronx, N.Y., assignor to Jack Rudnick and Benjamin Ruduick, Bronx and Tarrytown, N.Y., respectively Filed Sept. 8, 1958, Ser. No. 759,816 2 Claims. (Ql. 160-229) The present invention relates to means for retaining a folding door in the closed position and more particularly to spring means associated with the door which effectuates such end.

Many devices have been employed to retain folding doors in a closed position. Included among them are the spring latch means shown in applicants co-pending application, Serial No. 700,249. Others have employed engaging magnetic elements. Again, spring means to hold doors in the closed position have been used in the past. However, they have been unsatisfactory in that they have either required a weak spring which could be bent, in which case there was not secure closing action, or they used very strong springs which occasioned violent closing and opening action which presented a hazard to the user.

A principal object of the present invention is to provide simple and yet effective spring closure means for folding doors of the type which are used in closets, cabinets, doorways, room dividers and the like, which will operate efiiciently and safely.

Another object thereof is the provision of such means which function either as holding shut means or as holdingshut and holding-open means.

Still another object thereof is the pro-vision of such means which are very easily installed on the job by a carpenter without the necessity of employing special tools or holding jigs.

The above and other objects are achieved in the preferred form by means of routing aligned depressions in the rear surfaces of a pair of panels which make up a folding door so as to provide a continuous indentation in the closed position of the doors, which doors are pivotally connected as by piano hinges or the like, which enable the doors to pivot about a pivot line, and inserting within said indentation a spring connected at either end to one of said panels by stiff means which are pivotally connected both to the spring at one end and to the panel at the other, said spring being energized in the closed position of the doors along an axis which lies forward of said pivot line. Other refinements are described below.

Other objects and a fuller understanding of the present invention may be had by referring to the following detailed description and claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate preferred embodiments thereof, it being understood that the foregoing statement of the objects of the invention and the brief summary thereof is intended to generally explain the same without limiting it in any manner.

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a doorway closed by a folding door incorporating the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary rear elcvational view, partly in section, of the upper central portion of the door fully shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along lines 33 of FIG. 1, showing the door in a closed position.

FIG. 4 is a similar sectional view when the door of FIG. 3 is partially opened to the point where tension on the spring shown is released.

FIG. 5 is a similar view of the door in the fully opened position.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the mounting bracket ice 2 and FIG. 7 is a similar view of the spring hanger, both of which are shown in operative position in FIG. 2.

PEG. 8 is a sectional view taken along line 88 of FIG. 2.

FlG. 9 is a perspective view of a modified mounting bracket and spring.

PEG. 1G is a perspective view of still another modification of said bracket and spring.

FIG. 11 is a plan view of a lock plate used at the portion where the ends of the folding doors meet in the closed position.

FIG. 12 is a side elevational view thereof.

PEG. 13 is a side elevational view of a guide pin and mounting plate used at the bottom of the doors.

FIG. 14 is a plan view thereof.

Referring to the drawin s, and in particular to the form shown in FIGS. 1 through 8, the preferred form of the present invention includes a door frame or doorway consisting of a header ill, side jamb 11 (and a corresponding side janib, not shown), a sill 12, a pair of folding doors 13 and 14, of which 13 is only incompletely shown and door 14 consists of outer panel 15 and inner panel 16 (which may be formed of wood or other suitable material). Outer panel 15 is mounted to horizontally swing about an upper pivot pin 17, secured by a mounting plate 1% to a top portion of said panel, and lower pivot pin 19 connected by means not shown to said panel, said pins engaging respectively apertures in upper mounting plate 20 and lower mounting plate 21 afiixed to header it and sill 12, respectively. The means of pivoting the door are more fully described in applicants co-pending application Serial No. 683,354.

By means of mounting brackets 22 there may be afiixed to the upper confronting margins (in the closed position) of doors i3 and 14 guide rollers 23 which ride in linear guide grooves 24 formed in the underside of header 110. At the bottom confronting margins of said doors atop sill 12 there may be positioned lock plate 2.5 by means of screw through apertures 26 therein, said plate having lateral indented margins 27 at which their apices continue inward in the form of slots 28 dimensioned to receive a lock pin 29 adored by means of a mounting plate 39 to the rear inward margins of doors 13 and 14, said pin 2? lying underneath the lower inner margin of said doors so that in a closed position said pins enter slots 23 and prevent the inner margins of said doors from being forwardly or rearwardly displaced.

Panels 15 and 15 are pivotally connected by means of a piano hinge 3-1. The longitudinal uis of the hinge pin 32 of said hinge may be thought of as defining a pivot line about which said doors pivot when moved laterally relative to one another.

Within opposed rear confronting margins of panels '15 and 16 there are formed by routing or otherwise depressions 33 and 34, respectively, which depressions are aligned so as to provide a rectangular recess or indentation in the rear of door 14. Mounted within each of said depressions is a U-shaped mounting bracket 35, the base 36 of which sits against the floor of said depression while the sides 37 lie inward of the walls of said depression, and cars 33 disposed parallel to base 36 extend over the edges of said depression along the rem of panels 15 and 16, said ears having formed therein apertures through which wood screws 39 are positioned to retain the bracket in place against the panel. Distal portions of the bases of a pair of confronting brackets 35 have upturned tabs 40 and the abutting sides 37 are recessed to provide slots 41.

The free hooked ends 42 of double U-shaped spring hangers 43, the U-shaped portions thereof being connected by an arcua-te central bridge 44, are placed so that the hooked ends engage said brackets 35 within slots 41 while bridges 44 of said hangers lie against tabs 40. The hooked ends 65 of helical extension springs 46 engage arcuate base portions 47 of hangers 43 and thereby suspend spring 46 between a pair of said hangers as best shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. It will be noted that in the closed position of the doors as illustrated in PEG. 3, extension spring 46 is in a stretch state or state of tension and the axis along which said spring exerts its force (the axis which lies between the apices of slots 41 in brackets 35) lies forward of the pivot line of panels and 16.

Should a user grasp knob 48 and pull the same forwardly he would have to exert force against the action of spring 46 which tends to retain panels 15 and 16 in the closed position by pulling them toward one another. As the user continues to pull forwardly a point will be reached where the axis along which the spring exerts its energy will lie immediately over the pivot line. At this point spring 46 will tend neither to close nor open the door. As said axis crosses said pivot line so as to lie rearwardly thereof, said spring will bias the door toward an open position i.e. bias panels 15 and i6 toward one another, until the point shown in FIG. 4 is reached, at which point the spring is in a resting state and will exert no further biasing action.

As shown most clearly in FIG. 2, said brackets 35 are not positioned symmetrically about the pivot line of said panels but the bracket affixed to depression 33 lies closer to said line than does the corresponding bracket affixed within depression 34.

Such positioning has been employed in order to enable spring 46 to nest within depressions 33 and 34 when the door is in the open position shown in FIG. 5. Obviously, brackets 35 could be positioned differently and a spring of lesser longitudinal extent used to enable the nesting feature. However, spring hanger 43 exercises a very important function in enabling the nesting of spring 46 within depressions 33 and 34 in the closed position of door 14. It will be noted that spring hanger 43 is pivotally related both to the spring and bracket 35. This double pivotal action enables the diagonal positioning of spring 46 within said depressions when said door is in the closed position, which in turn makes it possible to use a longer spring and makes it possible to close the door without creating a binding action which results from the pulling of the spring.

The action of doubly pivoted hangers also enables this embodiment to function without substantial pull-back against a user when the door is displaced forwardly from its closed position. Where springs alone are used without the double pivotal action of the hanger member, springs act as double closure members, i.e. they act to maintain the door in a closed position and in an open position as well. But in the course of so functioning, once the axis along which the spring exerts its force crosses from a position forward of the pivotal line to a position rearward of the pivotal line, the panels will be brought together forcibly in what has been referred to as pull-back action.

It will be noted that depressions 33 and 34 are formed in upper portions of panels 15 and 16. It is desirable that this construction be followed in each instance and, in fact, that the depressions be located more than halfway up the length of the panels. When one folding door is pivoted to another by a piano hinge and the like, and especially when the doors are long doors, for example an 8-foot door, the wear on the hinge becomes uneven by reason of the moments of force developed by one door hanging on the other. For example, in FIG. 1 panel 16 tends to rotate in a counter clockwise direction around a fulcrum which could be located at the vertical center of the panel wall confronting panel 15. However, in the closed position as shown in FIG. 1 springs 46 exert a force which tends to pull panel 16 counter clockwise about such fulcrum thereby counteracting the clockwise movement brought about by gravity, and hence minimizes wear on piano hinge 31. It is desirable that there be an appreciable space between panels 15 and 16. If these items fit tightly together then if the door is painted the layers of paint will prevent the panels closing properly.

In addition, the leaves of binge 31 have some thickness and space must be left between panels 15 and 16 to accommodate such thickness. It is advisable, therefore, to place rubber bumpers such as bumpers .9 between said panels, which bumpers may be affixed by a screw 50 or the like. Should the bumpers wear or the doors otherwise become displaced, it is possible to place washers underneath said bumpers to vary the space between the panels. Bumpers, therefore, aid in maintaining the panels in a co-linear position when the door is closed.

Another means of maintaining such co-linear position and enabling the door to resist rearward displacement is doorstop 51 which may consist of a plastic rod afiixed by conventional means to header 1t) and extending downwardly therefrom so as to abut panel 15 when the door is in the closed position.

A particular advantage of the preferred form above described resides in the fact that it may be easily assembled at the place of installation. Manifestly, installation of folding doors is done by carpenters who have no special tools to enable tensioning and positioning of springs. However, the springs may very easily be assembled in the present instance merely by first engaging the hangers and the springs and then slipping the free hooked ends 42 of the hangers behind slots 41 of brackets 35. If, then, panels 15 and 16 are pivoted to the closed position, said hooked ends will end automatically enter said slots and bridge 44 will be positioned behind tab 46.

Alternate forms of the art here used as hold-shut and hold-open means are illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10. Thus, in FIG. 9 U-shaped mounting brackets 52 of the same general construction as mounting brackets 35 are provided with bent-up apertured spring hanger plates 53 through the apertures of which the hooked ends of spring 46 may be passed to suspend the spring across between panels 15 and 16 within depressions 33 and 34.

Again, in FIG. 10 another form is shown in which the base of a similar U-shaped mounting bracket 54 is bent up to form an eye through which the hooked ends of spring 46 may be passed to suspend the spring between the mounting plates, each one of which is placed within one of the depressions 33 and 34 so that the spring is suspended between the two panels. Of course, the base of a similar mounting plate may merely be aperturcd and the hooked end of a spring 46 may be passed through such aperture in perhaps the simplest form of suspending spring 46 between the panels. However, it should be noted that in each of the last three cases final assembly of the spring will be rather diflicult without the use of special stretch tools. In addition, such a door will have both hold-shut and hold-open action and will evidence rather substantial pull-back tendencies. As was brought out above, this detent action to hold the open door in an open position is achieverd only by means of sacrificing the safety feature which is inherent in the preferred embodiment shown above, which does not have the pull-back characteristics of the door with its positive detent action in the closed position.

Although the present invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure has been made only by way of example and that numerous variations may be employed without transcending the scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.

What is claimed is:

1. Folding-door hold-shut means for use with folding doors including a pair of panels hingedly connected to wing about a pivot line, said panels each having a depression formed in confronting rear portions thereof to provide a continuous rearwardly opening recess in said panels when colinear, a mounting bracket secured Within each of said panels in said depression formed therein, said bracket having a pair of vertically-spaced opposed distal siots formed therein and an upstanding detent disposed *etween said slots, a pair of double-U shaped spring hangers, each of the adjacent U-arms being connected by an arcuate bridge portion and the free arms thereof terminating in opposed hooked portions, the hooked portions of each of said hangers pivotally engaging a pair of said slots, the bridge portions thereof engaging the proximate sides of said detents, a helical extension spring, each of said hangers pivotally engaging opposite ends of 6 said spring, said spring urging confronting portions of said panels together along an axis forward of said pivot line when said panels are in closed colinear position.

2. A hold-shut means as described in claim 1, said depressions being formed within the upper one-half portions of said panels.

References Qited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,381,744 Riggs June 14, 1921 1,939,781 Kelsey Dec. 19, 1933 1,986,178 Ainsworth Jan. 1, 1935 2,891,274 Bloom June 23, 1959 

1. FOLDING-DOOR HOLD-SHUT MEANS FOR USE WITH FOLDING DOORS INCLUDING A PAIR OF PANELS HINGEDLY CONNECTED TO SWING ABOUT A PIVOT LINE, SAID PANELS EACH HAVING A DEPRESSION FORMED IN CONFRONTING REAR PORTIONS THEREOF TO PROVIDE A CONTINUOUS REARWARDLY OPENING RECESS IN SAID PANELS WHEN COLINEAR, A MOUNTING BRACKET SECURED WITHIN EACH OF SAID PANELS IN SAID DEPRESSION FORMED THEREIN, SAID BRACKET HAVING A PAIR OF VERTICALLY-SPACED OPPOSED DISTAL SLOTS FORMED THEREIN AND AN UPSTANDING DETENT DISPOSED BETWEEN SAID SLOTS, A PAIR OF DOUBLE-U SHAPED SPRING HANGERS, EACH OF THE ADJACENT U-ARMS BEING CONNECTED BY AN ARCUATE BRIDGE PORTION AND THE FREE ARMS THEREOF TERMINATING IN OPPOSED HOOKED PORTIONS, THE HOOKED PORTIONS OF EACH OF SAID HANGERS PIVOTALLY ENGAGING A PAIR OF SAID SLOTS, THE BRIDGE PORTIONS THEREOF ENGAGING THE PROXIMATE SIDES OF SAID DETENTS, A HELICAL EXTENSION SPRING, EACH OF SAID HANGERS PIVOTALLY ENGAGING OPPOSITE ENDS OF SAID SPRING, SAID SPRING URGING CONFRONTING PORTIONS OF SAID PANELS TOGETHER ALONG AN AXIS FORWARD OF SAID PIVOT LINE WHEN SAID PANELS ARE IN CLOSED COLINEAR POSITION. 